


Brave Heart (The Indestructible Remix)

by livii



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-16
Updated: 2015-06-16
Packaged: 2018-04-04 15:54:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4143654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livii/pseuds/livii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She stays on Terminus with Nyssa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brave Heart (The Indestructible Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Netgirl_y2k](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Netgirl_y2k/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Like You I'm Indestructible](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15142) by [Netgirl_y2k](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Netgirl_y2k/pseuds/Netgirl_y2k). 



> Will thank my wonderful betas by name after reveals!

_"Nyssa," she whispers, the name a question, a declaration. "I always loved you. Always."_

_Nyssa brushes her hand along Tegan's shoulder, along her side, and takes Tegan's hand in hers. Nyssa glances at Tegan, her eyes telling Tegan to be quiet, to be careful._

_Tegan has never, ever been quiet._

_"I wondered about the endgame," Tegan says. "After Terminus, what would there be? We couldn't stay here forever. Where would we go? Who would we be?"_

_Nyssa exhales, a soft sound. She does not speak._

_"I knew I'd be great," Tegan says, "not like that. It's you. I'm always better with you. However it ends, I can face it with you."_

_"My brave heart," Nyssa whispers. She smiles, grips Tegan's hand more tightly._

_They jump up as one, without discussion. By now they know each other so well, so many long days and nights, and they know one thing for certain: they have never been cowards, and never will be._

_They get past the first Cyberman and turn the corner, racing towards the TARDIS, their hands together, and there are more Cybermen up ahead, but they have each other, and they will fight to their last._

*

Nyssa is loud in bed. Tegan is -- not quiet, but restrained. It's such a surprise they both fall about laughing for ages, naked and sweat-sheened and full of love.

Nyssa gets control first, much more typical, and pins Tegan down with hands and mouth to subdue her. 

"My darling Tegan," Nyssa says, after some time. She is propped up on her elbows, looking down at Tegan in a way that has the other girl blushing, actually blushing.

"On Earth," Tegan says, awkwardly, "this isn't really something...natural. Accepted. Two women, you know?"

Nyssa smiles. "And since when did you worry about propriety, dear Tegan?"

Tegan kisses Nyssa, hard, but she doesn't ask about how things were on Traken, and Nyssa does not volunteer any information.

*

Staying on Terminus had been an impulsive, irrational, yet absurdly easy choice for Tegan. But the reality of living there is quite another thing.

So, she keeps busy and makes do; scientists need quite a bit of ordering about, their heads always in the clouds, never thinking about things such as allocations and supplies and the like. It suits her well.

"We should give you a proper job title," Nyssa says one evening, as they lie in bed together, tired but warm in each other's embrace. "You have a desk and an assistant, after all."

"Nah," says Tegan. "I'm just here because of you. I'm just doing what needs to be done. I don't need anything else."

"My brave heart," Nyssa says, "never knowing just how important she is."

Tegan shivers, and Nyssa holds her closer.

"Just had a bad feeling when you said that," Tegan explains. "Like someone walked over my grave."

"Or the Doctor crossed over your timeline," Nyssa says, but she's teasing, and Tegan laughs along with her and doesn't say anything else.

*

Despite everything, it's a shock to see the Doctor again, and with yet another face to boot.

They're older and possibly wiser, and certainly happier overall, and the Doctor smiles so widely when he sees them holding hands that they both feel like they could burst.

"Cybermen," Tegan says, shaking her head.

"I'm afraid so," says the Doctor, "and I rather need your help."

"Nothing is new then," Nyssa says, with a sly smile, and Tegan laughs, loving Nyssa more than ever, loving everything about them. It has been such a path to this point in time and space, and the five fingers pressing tightly against hers make it seem straight and true.

*

"In another timeline," Tegan says, "I didn't stay with you."

"Horrors," says Nyssa, though she's smiling. She moves even closer to Tegan, winds her legs around the other woman's, looks up at her with that smile she has always kept.

"Honestly," says Tegan, "this place is a ratty old dump full of death. I could have stayed on with the Doctor. Imagine what things were like for him with just Turlough there. Gosh, I hope he picked up another companion right away."

"Yes, imagine," Nyssa says, smiling again. "You could have gone to beautiful planets, parties, dances, seen all the stars. It's definitely what life was like for me on the TARDIS, after all."

"Oh you." Tegan pokes Nyssa in the ribs, and Nyssa laughs, so open and free. Tegan always feels proud when she causes that laugh, hears Nyssa be real and alive and happy.

"You're right though," she concedes. "We'd probably be fighting some giant space slug right now."

"A twenty-foot-long slug with poisonous tentacles," Nyssa replies. "And it would smell ghastly, of course."

Tegan laughs. "But it wasn't always like that. It's how I met you, after all. Good from the bad."

"Indeed," Nyssa says, and Tegan would continue her thought experiment but now Nyssa has her fingers and then her tongue in play, and it would be very rude to interrupt.

*

One of the patients makes a very slightly off-colour remark about their relationship. Tegan flies off the handle.

"I'm sorry," she says that night, sitting across the table from Nyssa. She's too sad and mad and worked up to sit closer, to lie with Nyssa yet. She knows Nyssa hates a scene. She knows she can't act like that towards patients.

"On Traken," Nyssa says, eventually, "it was not abnormal for women to lie together. But on the whole, there was rather a lack of lying together at all. We were...a repressed people. A quiet and powerful and careful people, but also we reserved ourselves, held ourselves in check."

Tegan's about stopped breathing; Nyssa never speaks of Traken, as much as Tegan longs to hear her talk, to help her, to affirm her.

"When I met you," Nyssa continues, a smile on her lips, "well. A mouth on legs, I think you said? And very nice legs they were, too."

Tegan smiles then too, and reaches out for Nyssa's hand. Nyssa lets her, and Tegan knows this is a really important moment, defining, forever.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" Nyssa says after some time passes.

"I'll say the wrong thing," says Tegan. "I always do."

"I miss my people. I am the last of my people, and it is a burden to bear," says Nyssa. "It will always be with me, and you cannot fix that and you should not feel you must. But I am rather fond of who I am with you, brave heart. And who you are, and what you say, no matter what."

This was the actual defining moment, Tegan realizes later, in bed, watching Nyssa sleep. When she falls asleep as well, Tegan's dreams are full of monsters and love, and her brave heart is full.


End file.
